A Rare Illustrated Engraved Sukkah Plaque [Germany? 18th century]

Ink and gouache on paper (14 ½  x 11 ¾  in.; 370 x 300 mm). Uniformly soiled; three edges strengthened on verso; additional small repairs to verso; minor holes where paper weakened.

On the festival of Sukkot, Jews erect a temporary structure known as a sukkah (booth) in which all meals are eaten. In many communities, it is customary to decorate the booth with a variety of ornamentation. This extremely rare hand-colored engraving is a remarkable example of a print intended to be hung on the sukkah wall. Very few examples of this genre are extant, since their exposure to the elements over the week-long holiday usually resulted in their destruction.

The central panel features a prayer to be recited upon entering the sukkah and in the cartouche below, the prayer to be recited upon exiting. Above the text, set within a formal garden, a family of four is seated in a well-appointed sukkah that includes a chandelier and damask tablecloth. Outside the sukkah, at left, a man dressed in elegant eighteenth-century garb smokes a pipe while a woman carries a dish of food toward the sukkah. The document is enframed by biblical verses related to the festival inscribed in an elaborate calligraphic script. Only two other copies of this rare sukkah decoration are known.